Instead of Micromanaging Your Sales Team, Try This

The chances of micro-managing sales managers being aware enough of their own leadership flaws, acknowledging them, and then doing something to change them are slim and none. But you can always print this article and leave a copy on their desk!

Micro-managing is characterized by:

• Constant supervision
• Excessive oversight and scrutiny
• Checking every task or decision an employee makes
• Not relinquishing decision-making control.

Hopefully, you're the type of manager who reads this list, recoils reflexively, and would never coach this way.

Some employees definitely need more "management" than others, but some need a lot less.

Effective sales leaders know the characteristics of each team member, and deliver guidance and feedback, in a way that the individual is most likely to understand and use.

Great sales coaches ensure their team members are clear about expectations and then provide resources they need to accomplish the goals. They look for ways to assist and steer clear when they can't.

Micromanagement is fundamentally rooted in a lack of personal self-confidence, but it's reflected outward to staff members they supervise. It creates problems for employees and can be a key reason why many look for jobs elsewhere.

"People don't leave bad jobs, they leave bad bosses" --Jeff Burkhart

"People leave managers, not companies" --Marcus Buckingham.

Sales coaches can do better. Here's an approach that will calm the anxiety some sales managers rightfully/wrongfully feel and create a better environment for employees.

If you've established a sales process at your company, and this is Selling 101, then you've likely described a series of actions that track or move a sale from cold call to close.

Maybe your process looks like this:

1. A series of cold calls
2. Discovery calls
3. In-person/online demonstrations
4. Proposal presentation and review
5. Technical integration call
6. Contract presentation and legal review
7. Outline steps and create an action plan to finalize the contract.

Whatever your process, it gives the manager and the sales team an objective way to evaluate their daily activities, and see if they're tracking in the right direction.

When you're doing deal reviews with your team, you can have them explain where they're at in the sales cycle, and what their plans are for progressing each opportunity.

The manager can ask questions and satisfy their need for information, without the salesperson feeling like they're being second-guessed or micro-managed.

It creates a collaborative culture where the supervisor and supervisee are working together to achieve individual and team quotas.

It absolutely eliminates the need for the manager to over-scrutinize and over-control their team.

Here's another idea to consider. If you're the sales manager and you developed the sales process. If you assigned the territory and the quota. If your team is following the playbook, doing the necessary work, and not hitting their numbers. Then it's on you. Don’t go looking to browbeat your staff and don't give those speeches that begin with, "We really need to execute…"

You have to figure out a different approach and sometimes, it's simply that the quotas you assigned were not achievable.

Either way, demonstrate some self-confidence. Figure it out. Ask your team for help.

But avoid creating a disempowering, low-trust work environment.

Ganbatte kudasai!

#SalesLeadership #EmpoweringSalesReps #SalesCoaching